loasaf

ierences of the M. E. Church (1884) ; Christian Advo-
cate, N. Y, Mar. 13,1884; N. Y. Times, Mar. 8, 1884.]

H.E.S.

lOASAF (Jan, 22/Feb. 4, I76i-November
1799), bishop of Kodiak, Alaska, had the sec-
ular name of Ivan Il'ich Bolotov. His father,
irfa Bolotov, was the priest of the village of
Strazhkovo, in the government of Tver, Russia.
Ivan was educated in Tver and Yaroslav ec-
clesiastical seminaries, taught, and in 1786 be-
came a monk. He later lived in the Valaam
monastery, on Valaam island, Lake Ladoga, near
St. Petersburg. His name is connected with the
first attempt made by the Russians to spread
Christianity in the Aleutian Islands and in
Alaska. In 1793, with the rank of archimandrite,
he was appointed chief of an ecclesiastical mis-
sion to the settlement of the Golikov and She-
lekhov fur company, which had been established
ten years before on Kodiak Island after the visit
of the merchant Shelekhov [#.£>.] to that place.
Leaving St. Petersburg in 1793, the mission
reached Kodiak Island in September 1794. In
his first report (May 1795), Archimandrite
1'oasaf informed Irkutsk and St. Petersburg that
"To the glory of God, I have baptized more than
7,000 Americans and solemnized more than 2,000
marriages," achievements resulting from tours
about the island. Officially the missionaries were
subordinate to the Bishop of Irkutsk, Siberia,
and to Holy Synod, but actually, they were
obliged to be dependent on the Golikov and She-
lekov company, whose local manager, Alexander
Andreevich Baranov [#.z>.], was compelled with
very small means to care for the work of the mis-
sion as well as the company's affairs. To him
the monks, who were not acquainted with the
local language and problems, seemed an unneces-
sary burden, and misunderstanding and enmity
gradually arose between ecclesiastical and sec-
ular authorities. The hieromonach Makarii, sent
to Unalaska, baptized more than 1,000 people
there but after much unpleasantness with the
company's administration, joined another com-
pany, and in 1796 left with them for Irkutsk, in-
tending to complain of the actions of his former
masters. Another hieromonach, ftJvenalii, was
sent from Kodiak to Nuchek harbor, where he
baptized more than 7,000 people. Later he
crossed over Kenai gulf, where he baptized all
the inhabitants, and in 1796 he moved to Alaska,
but at Iliamna lake was killed by natives.
Archimandrite loasaf with the hieromonach
Afanasu continued the work on Kodiak Island
and organized a small school.

Meanwhile Golikov was financially ruined and
in 1795 Shelekhov died. His widow, with her

loor

sons-in-law Rezanov [q.v.] and Mikhail Bulda-
kov, united several hitherto hostile, independent
fur companies into the Russian-American Com-
pany. About this time Archimandrite loasaf was
called to Irkutsk, where in April 1799 he was
ordained Bishop of Kodiak. Leaving Irkutsk in
May, he perished at sea, early in November, be-
tween Unalaska and Kodiak. After the loss of
the Bishop and his company, the attempt to es-
tablish Christianity in Alaska was not renewed
until a quarter of a century later, when Father
loann Veniaminov, later Innokentn [#.£>.], met-
ropolitan of Moscow, began his successful labors
on Unalaska.

While in Irkutsk, Archimandrite loasaf com-
posed for the Holy Synod a geographical and
ethnographical description of Kodiak Island and
other islands of his diocese, and answered a series
of questions sent him by the Holy Synod. Later
these writings were published anonymously as
an article in the magazine Drug proszrieshchemw
(Moscow, October 1805) and with a few cor-
rections, were issued as an anonymous book un-
der the title: Kratkoe opisariie ob amerikanskom
ostrovQ Kad'iakQ (Moscow, 1805). This book
and several letters from Kodiak, printed in vari-
ous publications not long after loasaf s death,
were his entire literary legacy.

[Photostats and transcripts from Alaskan MSS., at
the Lib. of Cong.; Ochcrk is istorli Amerikanskoi
pravoslavnot dukhovnoi missti (St. Petersburg, 1894) ;
H. H. Bancroft, Hist, of Alaska (1886) ; F. A. Brock-
haus and I. A, Efron, EntsiklopedicheskU slovar*, vol.
XIII (St. Petersburg, 1894) ; RusskVt biograficheskii
slovar*, vol. VIII (St. Petersburg, 1897).] M.Z.V.

IOOR, WILLIAM (fl, 1780-1830), playwright,
was born in St. George's Parish, Dorchester, S,
C, the son of John loor and a descendant of fore-
bears who came to South Carolina from Holland
in 1714. loor's two comedies, both performed in
Charleston in the first decade of the nineteenth
century, were among the early examples of pa-
triotic drama and of the comedy of manners in
America. The first of these, Independence, or,
Which do you Like Best, the Peer, or the Farmer,
was an adaptation of an English novel, The In-
dependent, probably by Andrew MacDonald, but
called by loor in his preface "anonimous." It
was first performed at the Charleston Theatre,
Feb. 26, 1805, with Mr. Hardinge playing the
hero, Charles Woodville, and Mrs. Whitlock,
sister of Mrs. Siddons, reading S. C. Carpenter's
prologue. In the published version, printed later
in 1805 by G. M. Bonnetheau, the cast of the
performance of Apr. i is given, which included
John Hodgkinson • in the role of Woodville.
loor's second play, The Battle of Eutaw Springs,
and Evacuation of Charleston (1807), was pro-

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